#gladiator jeongguk

[bultaonene]

tk ring fighting au

CLANG! CLANG!

Jeongguk looks up at the top of the dome, the sound jarring. He can see the audience looking down at him – bored nobles that seek violence as enjoyment. They crawl over the dome like insects, roaring and hitting the metal cage with their canes.

It works like this, the Dome. The nobles, money overflowing from their pockets, pay to see a fight, to see blood. And the poor folk enters as contestants, risking their lives for a chance to win the prize and join the wealthy aristocrats. People say the prize is true, that a mountain of gold and a title awaits the winner, the one that will slay the Beast.

Jeongguk has never seen anyone coming out of the Dome alive.

And yet he's here, sword already bloody after fighting other contestants. His name is shouted by the ringmaster and then echoed by the audience, the bars of the Dome rattling and drowning him in noise.

But then, the crowd quietens. Jeongguk looks around and he sees someone else in the cage with him. They look much bigger than Jeongguk. The newcomer is partially hidden by the shadows and he can only see their silhouette, taller than him and wider.

He isn't worried. He already fought other contestants, even if it was before officially reaching the Dome. Violence is an exercice he has plenty of practice in.

The figure approaches and Jeongguk is surprised to see the other is actually similar in size to him. He's a young man, much like himself, tall and lean. His broad shoulders are weighted down by a strange coat made of pure black feathers and that’s the reason why he looks so much bigger. More threatening.

Jeongguk twirls the weapon in his hand. From the outside there is no information about what happens in the Dome, how it really works. It's all a mystery and so he's careful.

“Are you here for the Beast?” 

The man's voice is deep, but not hostile. Jeongguk doesn't let his guard down.

“We are all here for the Beast.”

The man chuckles, hiding his mouth with a feathered arm. "Ah, isn't it true? The prize is tempting."

No one knows anything about the Dome, but not knowing the truth never stopped gossip. Jeongguk has heard stories and myths, all claiming to be true but none denying to be false.

He heard stories about some contestants that don’t die but can’t escape the cage either. Trapped inside until they decide to face the Beast again and then they either die or win.

The man is strange. His coat, his movements – he can't be a newcomer to the game like Jeongguk. He moves too confidently in the Dome, as if he's used to it. He doesn't look like someone who ever loses but the Dome is full of enigmas, full of the unexpected.

"Do you think you can win, that you can triumph? Against the Beast?"

The Beast is the biggest enigma of them all. Some say it's a dragon. Some say it's a lion. Some say it's a chimera, a snake, a ghoul, a rotten deity. The Beast is every myth that was ever narrated and it's none of them at the same time.

If Jeongguk wants to kill it, he has to get more information about it. He doesn't know what game the man is playing, but he will play with him. Let him talk, let him reveal a secret or two.

"Who are you?" he asks. They are circling each other, walking around the cage but never getting closer. The man doesn't answer at first, just stares. His feathered coat looks like a shadow following him closely, almost as if it has a mind of its own.

"I'm Taehyung," he replies, but does not reveal anything more. He guesses he's gauging him out just as Jeongguk is doing to him. Whether he's a contestant or an outsider, he is facing him to fight.

Jeongguk also heard stories about nobles asking to join the fight, too blinded by bloodlust to realize the risk. That image fits Taehyung better. A cocky noble, with clothes too refined and a stance too arrogant to be afraid of death.

"Won't you offer your name? I offered you mine."

"I'm Jeongguk."

Taehyung hums at that. They are still walking, careful to keep their focus on one another. He can hear some of the audience getting impatient. They want the fight, they want the blood.

Taehyung doesn't speak again, so Jeongguk does. "You haven't answered me. Who are you?"

He doesn't get an answer. The deep gaze stays on him and he starts to feel unnerved. He feels like he has been thrown at the feet of a hungry lion, ready to feast on him. "But I did answer. I am Taehyung."

There is something wrong. The audience is getting impatient, but it's still too silent. They don't shout their names, no, they wait. Eager for what to come but willing to stay still, because they know they are getting a show. Jeongguk swallows. His palms are getting sweaty.

"Are you a contestant?"

Taehyung laughs at that but like before, his feather covered sleeve comes up to muffle the sound. His eyes are crinkled in genuine amusement.

“A contestant? Oh no, Jeongguk.”

Taehyung smiles, closed-lipped and enigmatic, and Jeongguk doesn’t quite understand why it feels so unsettling.

Then his smile widens and this time he doesn't hide it. It becomes a grin that shows his teeth and his canines are long and sharp, just as his eyes are. There are many stories about the Beast, all different. But they all have one feature in common.

The Beast has razor-sharp teeth to tear the flesh off its enemies. Long, sharp canines. And dangerous eyes. Taehyung looks at him and his coat puffs and moves and oh, that’s not a coat, that’s something completely different.

Taehyung is something completely different. He is still smiling when he utters the next words.

“I’m not a contestant. Not at all.” 

or: once there was a winged god that descended on earth. He had a son with a human and the baby was half a deity, half a monster. He is raised secluded, then he's captured and put in a cage. Forced to battle.

But he's the son of a god. And gods always loved blood sacrifices. Taehyung never knew glory, but he becomes the King of the Dome. He becomes the Beast.

Jeongguk is looking for glory and doesn't mind spilling blood, just like him.

Maybe he can keep him as his own pet. Just for a while. After all, even beasts get lonely.